Making it Lovelyhttp://makingitlovely.com
A design blog about living a stylish life and transforming the so-so.Mon, 30 Mar 2015 18:23:48 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Honor Roll (Videos)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/makingitlovely/~3/tVL1Wqsl86Y/
http://makingitlovely.com/2015/03/30/honor-roll-videos/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 18:18:24 +0000http://makingitlovely.com/?p=33313

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I’m not the most prolific vlogger, but I’ve been a Vimeo Plus member for years. I like the interface and layout of the site, and their password protection so I can share things privately with friends or clients. Plus I feel like I’m part of a larger community of people making the kind of videos I wish I could pull off, but that I do try to learn from!

Here are a handful of my favorite videos on Vimeo, some of which I’ve shared here before, and some that I haven’t.

If you’re looking for a place to host your videos, I’ve partnered with Vimeo to share an offer with you. Their business accounts (the PRO subscription) are $17/month, but you can save 10% on Vimeo Plus or PRO! Use promo code: LOVELY10. You’ll be a part of a larger network of professionals and a community centered on high quality video, with a site layout that puts the focus on your work with no distracting pre-roll commercials or banners. You’ll also get 20GB of storage per week, stats, portfolio pages, and more. Your videos belong on Vimeo.

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The blue rug that I styled here recently, while beautiful, has been returned. Going back to bare floors was kind of sad! I’d had the Azilal rug that I brought back from Morocco down before though, and I figured it was time to bring it back.

I’m considering buying the blue rug for the dining room if I want to hold off on wallpaper, but I haven’t decided yet. It’s out of stock in the size I would need, so I’ve got a little time to think about it. I am however keeping one of the pillowsfrom before! It’s got all of my colors going on, and I love the texture.

The Moroccan rug is a decent size (6×11) for the back parlor, but I wanted to try out a layered look with a couple of pale pink flatwoven rugs. You’ve seen them before; I like them a lot, but I didn’t choose them and they’re a bit too small for my house. I lined them up to create a larger rug because I thought the colors and pattern would complement the Azilal, and layering it on top covered most of the seam. And our corner fireplace is always an issue with rugs in this room. These are thin enough that I can fold the corner under to fit, but anything thicker would have to be trimmed and bound to custom fit the space.

Oh, hey, different plant. I moved the other fiddle leaf fig upstairs to a window with the same exposure in hopes of letting it recover, but it’s not doing so well. This other little guy is happy though, and has sprouted new baby leaves toward the bottom! I need to properly plant him soon — the plastic pot it came in is just sitting inside there.

Anyway that’s how we came to have three rugs in the living room. None of them are perfect on their own, but together they’re better than the sum of their parts. I don’t know how long they’re going to stay like this though — the kids run around the house and as they run through the room, everything is kind of sliding around! (Rug pads aren’t doing enough to stop the problem.) It’s a good look, but maybe not the most practical for us.

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]]>Things are a little crazy here, in the best way. I’m styling a photo shoot here for a magazine on Thursday, which should be a fun feature that we can knock out in a day. Then in two weeks, our house is being taken over for a few days for a much bigger whole-house shoot for another magazine. Good stuff! Our last house had been photographed over the years, but each publication always relied on my styling. This upcoming shoot will be for a holiday issue, so they’ll be bringing in props and holiday decorations that a stylist will mix with our own things. (The neighbors should enjoy the Christmas tree that will be visible from the front window. The kids are going to be so excited though! Excited, and confused!)

Besides the frenzied rush of trying to get the house photo-ready and keep it that way with the kids about, I’ve been gathering props for this week’s shoot. We’re doing three looks which will be fun, but it’s three times the work and running around. I’ve also been working on three big posts that will be published elsewhere soon (and I can’t wait to share them with you because they were so much fun to work on!), an in-person event or two, and then I’ve got my workload for the class I’m teaching at Columbia. Add in a baby that is still nursing every 2-3 hours, a blog (this blog!) that I love writing but that takes more work than it seems on the surface, and email that seems to multiply as I answer it, and it starts to feel a little nutso. Lucky for me I kinda like that energy, but I am looking forward to it letting up a little.

Plus I was all excited about it finally being spring, and then we got another layer of snow. Dammit, Chicago. Although it worked out for the upcoming holiday feature — they needed a good snowy exterior shot!

So hey, here’s a random picture of me and Calvin from a few days ago because it’s weird to have a post without a picture. And scene.

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]]>If you’ve been reading for a while, you’re probably familiar with my monthly photo project. I started when Eleanor was a baby. I bought the same pink bodysuit in different sizes, made a felt pin with a number in the center that could be switched out, and photographed her in the same chair and in the same setting each month to document her first year. As those first twelve months came to a close, I decided to continue taking the monthly photos until she turned two, and then yearly after that. I did the same thing for her little brother, August, and I’m doing it now for Calvin.

I love having the photos to look back on. It’s fun to see how each child has grown, and also to look at their photos side-by-side from the same ages. And I love that it has inspired so many others to take on the project, too!

Babies are sort of universal. Assuming normal development, they grow at roughly the same rate, reach the same milestones, sit up, learn to talk, learn to walk, and so on. Of course they have different temperaments and each baby is unique, but documenting their growth through a series of photos isn’t violating any burgeoning personhood. They’re babies. They grow quickly, and it’s fun to see that in pictures.

As the kids grow older though, I hesitate to share as much. Their experiences are less universal and more specific to them as individuals. As they begin to choose their haircuts, their clothes, and the way that they want to present themselves, they should be able to explore their identities without strangers watching or commenting.

Eleanor will turn six next month. I’m planning to continue taking her yearly photo, but I won’t be publishing it. Five years old feels like a good place to end the series publicly, and I’ll do the same for August and Calvin. This isn’t to say that you will never see my kids’ photos as they get older (though I have dialed that back). There is a difference though between a picture that happens to have them in it, and a series specifically shot to show how they have physically changed as they’ve aged.

May my children never choose something as awful as the perm I got when I was ten (a body wave — so sophisticated!), but if they do, they can do it in relative anonymity, away from their mom’s blog.

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We’ve come to the last of four #100reveal makeovers in four weeks, using just $100 from Target each time, plus GE reveal® LED light bulbs. I’ve had a total of $4000 in Target gift cards and plenty of GE reveal® lighting to give away too, so that each week, 10 readers win everything they need for their own #100reveal makeovers at home! I’ve already shown the changes I’ve made to the dining room, my work space, and our playroom as part of this series, and the library is the fourth and final space, so let’s get to it!

What the room needed most was more light. The secretary desk that I’d added recently was fine to use during the day, but once it got dark out, that corner of the room was in shadow. I used half of my Target budget this week to buy a brass floor lamp, and then used the other half for a coupleof vases that were on sale.

I arranged the vases on top of the secretary for a bit more height, and I like that their colors reference the wall color of the entryway just beyond the doorframe. Of course, as nice as those vases are, the biggest change in the library was the addition of the much-needed floor lamp.

The other floor lamp in the room, next to the floral chair, had two CFL bulbs in it. Their light was always very yellow, so I swapped them out for GE reveal® LED bulbs. The dingy color they cast was gone, and the pattern in the chair was much more vibrant in the new lighting. Even the books on the shelves looked better!

You can see more of the library’s #100reveal makeover in this week’s video.

Giveaway

How would you set up a reading spot of your own using GE reveal® and a $100 gift card to Target? Comment on this post mentioning #100reveal for your chance to win!

There will be ten winners drawn. See the complete rules for more information, and good luck!

I’m so excited to be a GE reveal® #100reveal sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own, projects have been chosen by me, and additional products used in the project were selected by me and provided by GE reveal®.

I’ve been thinking a lot about these monthly/yearly photos. Expect a separate post on that later this week, because I think it’s a conversation that should happen, but not attached to my guy’s pictures. :)

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Ever borrow something from a friend, and then after seeing how good it looks on you, you wish you didn’t have to give it back? That’s kind of the situation here, except it’s my house that’s wearing the borrowed item. A rug, in this case. And a couple of pillows.

I’d been seeing Loloi popping up in the design world a lot lately, and when they reached out about a potential partnership, we decided that it would be fun to feature one of their rugs by styling it in my home. I chose one of my favorites (JO-10 in indigo/blue, from their new Journey collection) and it was on its way here.

Loloi has rugs in a huge variety of styles. I almost went with their Sahara rug, but I thought it would be fun to try out something with a more saturated color palette. The blue is so beautiful, isn’t it? I wasn’t sure how it would play against my sofa, but it’s working. Oh, yes it is.

Since everything was sent on loan to be photographed, it will be on its way back to Loloi soon and I’ll be sad to see it go. The floors are bare throughout most of the first floor right now and I’d forgotten how nice it is to have a soft, plush rug underfoot, let alone one so pretty. I find myself standing in the doorway, checking out the room the way you might put on something new and check yourself out in the mirror. Lookin’ good, room.

The pillows by Loloi will be in stores soon, and I think that at the very least I’m going to need to get one of those multicolored pillows for keeps. The rugs are available now though, in retailers across the nation and online through sites like Wayfair and Rugs Direct.

So fun to see the room dressed a bit differently, and rugs always have the power to really change a room. What do you think? Are you liking the black and blue together in the room as much as I am?

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]]>Spring is almost here! Are you feeling it where you live, too? The temperatures climbed above 30° this week, and I was so excited, I showed a bit of ankle the other day like a hussy. I’m eager to wear the pair of striped shoes that I picked up recently ($22 bucks, and super cute), but I figure I should wait for the slush and snow piles to melt first. A little ankle is one thing, but showing the whole top of the foot? Who do you think I am?

Anyway. I want to wear this whole outfit right now, bare legs, stripey shoes, and all.

The Good Machinery, Ciclop Bracelet, Adorn MilkA whole stack of ‘em, just like that.

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I’ve been making over four spaces in my home over the course of four weeks, using just $100 from Target each time, plus GE reveal® LED light bulbs. I’ve also had a total of $4000 in Target gift cards and plenty of GE reveal® lighting to give away so that each week, 10 readers win everything they need for their own #100reveal makeovers! The rules and information are at the bottom of this post, so be sure to enter.

The room is divided into a few different zones with one side set up for art projects, plenty of toys on shelves and a big open space in the middle for playing, and then what I jokingly refer to as the kids’ apartment, over by the window. There’s a nicely stocked play kitchen, a small table and chairs for hosting tea parties, and a couple of chairs that divide the space and provide a spot for the grownups to sit. That’s the side I focused on for my #100reveal makeover. I used my budget at Target to pick up a wire cubby, a large wire basket, a clock, picture frame, and some fake flowers for the kids’ table.

The cubby, picture frame, and clock were hung on the wall to the left of the play kitchen. The cubby is acting as a pantry, the sweet print in the frame is from Petit Pippin, and I figure every kitchen (pretend or not) needs a clock.

I like to have fresh flowers on our dining table, so the kids like having them for their table too and an artificial arrangement is more practical for them to play with. The wire basket holds stuffed animals for tea parties.

I sewed those patterned curtains years ago for my studio, back when I was running my stationery shop and before Brandon and I had any kids. I loved the pattern then and I still do, all these years later! (The fabric is called “Mom’s Couch” by Moda, but it was discontinued ages ago.) There are three lights in the playroom: one in the ceiling fan, a floor lamp, and a matching task lamp. Swapping out their bulbs for GE reveal®& LED bulbs really made that pattern in the curtains pop! The white walls looked far better at night too, without the former lighting’s yellow cast.

You can see more of this week’s #100reveal makeover in action in the video below.

Eleanor and August patiently waited for me to finish up working on the room so they could come up to play. The new additions were a big hit, and the lighting made it much nicer to be up there as the sun went down.

Giveaway

Do you have a playroom or other fun space in need of some updating? Comment below about setting up the perfect place to relax and play using GE reveal® and a $100 gift card to Target, mentioning #100reveal for your chance to win!

There will be ten winners drawn. See the complete rules for more information, and good luck!

I’m so excited to be a GE reveal® #100reveal sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own, projects have been chosen by me, and additional products used in the project were selected by me and provided by GE reveal®.